Small Press Spotlight: Graywolf Press

After a long, and busy hiatus, the Book Culture Blog is back with a vengeance. The spring course rush is coming to an end, and it is time for the store to return to it’s quiet and casual status quo. A good friend and valued member of our store took his leave to become a big shot in Washington DC, but his legacy will live on in the store. Everyone from employees, to professors, and patrons have expressed their gratitude for his extensive and thoughtful help. Christopher was an essential part of our store, and while we are sad to see him go, we are all very excited to see what wonderful things he will be doing for the rest of the world. Good luck Chris, we’re all wishing you the best.

Now, onto business. This post is dedicated to Graywolf Press. Since 1974 Graywolf Press has operated as a non-profit publisher . Originally, they released limited edition, hand-sewn poetry chapbooks. The founder, Scott Walker, was as hands on as possible, even helping to assemble the chapbooks. They have since expand; publishing poetry, fiction, nonfiction, memoirs, essays, and more. The most amazing part: they are still a functioning non-profit literary publisher.

With help from National Endowment for the Arts, local philanthropic organizations, and other national funders, Graywolf was able to relocate and expanded. Graywolf has published a number of influential and renowned authors, such as Natasha Trethewey, Dorthea Tanning, Liu Xiaobo, Per Petterson, Tiphanie Yanique, and Geoff Dyer, among many others.

Graywolf is a large contributor to the contemporary poetry scene. They are responsible for publishing collections of poetry that have been celebrated for their innovation and importance in and out of the literary world. Liu Xiaobo’s collection, June 4th Elegies, was translated from Chinese to English and published with Greywolf. Xiaobo’s stories of dissent, writing about the Tienanmen Square massacre made him into a national voice of sorts, representing the Chinese political activists, while in his homeland, he was jailed and censored. Tracy K. Smith won the Pulitzer Prize in 2012 for her collection of poetry, Life on Mars. Per Petterson was honored with the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award in 2007 for hist novel, Out Stealing Horses. The following year, Mary Jo Bang was awarded with the National Book Critics Circle Award for poetry for her book Elegy. This is only a sampling of the creators who have been praised for their work.

To thank Graywolf for their contributions to the literary world would be simply scratching the surface of gratefulness. Graywolf Press make small businesses like ours remember what exactly we are doing here; bringing attention to interesting and inspired works of literary art while providing a particular personal touch. I encourage all of our readers to visit Graywolf Press’ website to see a full list of titles and authors, and donate to keep this press a part of our lives. From all of us at Book Culture; Thank you Graywolf Press for giving us access to amazing books.

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Book Culture is an independent community bookstore with two locations in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of New York City on 112th street and 114th street and Broadway. Visit us online at www.bookculture.com